Extremely Low Midyear Mayhem Turnout, Why?

fizzybeef · August 3

Population is just to low

LalMirchi · August 3

Really sorry to say but the entire Event concept needs to be revisited and updated.

reazea · August 3

subclassing has been really bad for PvP. That and vengeance mode has already driven off a lot of the few remaining PvP mains.

....still waiting on those caps on cross healing and shield stacking and limiting free pull sets to "monsters only".

Imperial_Archmage · August 3

Stamicka wrote: »

I'm curious to hear why so many players avoided this most recent Midyear Mayhem event. Each event the turnout gets lower, but this time it's shockingly low. The added campaigns were not needed at all. Personally speaking, I only played a little for the first 2 days and lost interest after that. I have a long list of reasons, but it would probably be useful for ZOS to see other perspectives.

Feel free to share your reasons.

There has been a general drop off in the player base because the game hasn’t had any real new content since West Weald and the Season of the Worm has been a complete disaster. In other words there is nothing in the game to keep PvE players engaged so this time around PvPer won’t be able to get their rocks off griefing us while we scramble do to the quests for event tickets. Sorry not sorry!

Vonnegut2506 · August 3

If you look at the Steam charts, the game traditionally loses players during the summer through September. It isn't anything new, and the numbers will probably start going up again later in the fall and winter. People are vacationing, camping, beaching, enjoying the summer weather for the most part. I spend more time on ESO in the summer because I have time off, but that isn't the norm for most people.

Darethran · August 3

Having Vengeance 2 end just before the event meant we had a taste of proper amazing Cyrodiil, followed by the crappy low-op cap normal campaigns. I'd have stayed on for the event but I left when Vengeance ended. And will only be coming back when it also comes back

Markytous · August 4

Darethran wrote: »

Having Vengeance 2 end just before the event meant we had a taste of proper amazing Cyrodiil, followed by the crappy low-op cap normal campaigns. I'd have stayed on for the event but I left when Vengeance ended. And will only be coming back when it also comes back

You make a really great point. Vengeance 1 and 2 were so much fun! I missed them being represented during the PVP event, even if it was a sub-category.

LadyGP · August 4

I feel like I'm screaming into the void but...

"extremly low turnout" and a"2 hour queue" just don't go hand in hand (at least in zos pov). They will say oh look our logs said the queue is 2 hours clearly there is a ton of participation for the event.

But... everyones afk.

AngryPenguin · August 4

Markytous wrote: »

Darethran wrote: »

Having Vengeance 2 end just before the event meant we had a taste of proper amazing Cyrodiil, followed by the crappy low-op cap normal campaigns. I'd have stayed on for the event but I left when Vengeance ended. And will only be coming back when it also comes back

You make a really great point. Vengeance 1 and 2 were so much fun! I missed them being represented during the PVP event, even if it was a sub-category.

Vengeance is a totally different game played on the same map as original Cyrodiil.

marius_buys · August 4

idk but when we do guild runs during Whitestrake Grey Host, Blackreach & Ravenwatch are generally pop locked

mattaeus01b16_ESO · August 4

Stamicka wrote: »

I'm curious to hear why so many players avoided this most recent Midyear Mayhem event. Each event the turnout gets lower, but this time it's shockingly low. The added campaigns were not needed at all. Personally speaking, I only played a little for the first 2 days and lost interest after that. I have a long list of reasons, but it would probably be useful for ZOS to see other perspectives.

Feel free to share your reasons.

I don't relish the idea of being a lamb for the slaughter. Im good... I'll pass. And I say this almost every year.
Did you know that the first year that this started, we ran side by side with apposing factions if quest towns and largely ignored them? We let people do their questing and have fun with the grind? And if someone came out in our faction and started to kill people, we would tell them to stop. As well as just not help them.

Times have changed. Players dont care.
I still pass by players when I see them questing. And ya know what? They like shooting me in the back.
Iv given grief to people in coms while in groups for chasing down that lone player. JUST to have them show up and try to gank one of us, over and over.
Honestly, the less time I spend in PVP, the happier I am.

LouisaB75 · August 4

I would say a combination of factors have kept me from participating in Mayhem as much as last time.

Firstly, been out and about some days enjoying the nice weather. Of course today, when it is raining and I am home, it is maintenance day of course.

Been playing around with subclassing fun builds which are far too squishy in PvP. Plus the favourite build I have been playing with is on my EP toon and I play AD when I PvP.

I really liked the vengeance mode because I didn't have to deal with unkillable tower trolls, ball groups farming AP by running around keeps, and dying to Vicious Death or Rush of Agony etc all the time. After enjoying that so much, it is making Mayhem seem much less fun for players like me.

moderatelyfatman · August 4

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

If you look at the Steam charts, the game traditionally loses players during the summer through September. It isn't anything new, and the numbers will probably start going up again later in the fall and winter. People are vacationing, camping, beaching, enjoying the summer weather for the most part. I spend more time on ESO in the summer because I have time off, but that isn't the norm for most people.

If you look at the history, you notice that December 2024 was the most recent time the daily logins average below 10k players. The last time it was this low was in March 2018, more than six years previously.

Why I bring this up is that July 2025 was on 10.2k and the trend is dropping, suggesting that August 2025 will be another month where the numbers drop below 10k. If this is happens, it will be less than a year since two record lows and is not the norm for ESO.

RobZha · August 4

I've actually been ok with this but probably biased as I like the event anyway. In the past though it's been a nightmare lagfest and I can hardly believe I'm saying it but there's been a lot less lag? I've not often noticed it that much and have generally enjoyed playing in recent days.

I've been in a queue to get in several times now over the last few nights where it's taken around an hour or longer to get in so I don't think low pop has been a huge issue either.

While waiting recently I was trying to work out how they could make the queue go down faster too and I came up with : when your alliance is pop locked and there's queues, there's a button that pops up in a menu offering you 20k if you leave pvp so someone else can get in. I thought that could be interesting if they tried it but realised that could break things and make it way worse as people join just to leave for 20k, so there'd have to be restrictions. Maybe one of more of : you have to have played regularly over the last month, need at least 500k alliance points, can only do it once a week or something too. It probably sounds stupid but if it'd help queues go down a bit faster I'd be fine with it.

lostineternity · August 4

A month after introducing subclassing, 2 pvp statics in my guild simply closed, people didn't like the new meta, some quit pvp right away, some after a few tries.
I personally haven't missed a single pvp event in the last 5 years, until this time, now 4 of my pvp characters are just doing crafting dailies with old builds and I don't plan to change anything yet.

Ingenon · August 4

I'm fine with the Midyear Mayhem turnout this year. This year, I'm in it for the event tickets and the event style pages. I am able to login on the empty campaigns and do the daily quests, and most days the players I see are all doing the same quests that I am, and we don't attack each other. And on PS/NA I know many players are getting the event style pages, because the prices on guild traders for them have dropped. And I have collected and/or traded for the full set and sold my duplicates.

I think the only thing ZOS could do to make it better for me would be to have a Vengeance style campaign open. Since I was not getting one shotted in the last Vengeance campaign, I have fun playing in those.

LadyGP · August 4

lostineternity wrote: »

A month after introducing subclassing, 2 pvp statics in my guild simply closed, people didn't like the new meta, some quit pvp right away, some after a few tries.
I personally haven't missed a single pvp event in the last 5 years, until this time, now 4 of my pvp characters are just doing crafting dailies with old builds and I don't plan to change anything yet.

This is me as well (not missing an event since it's inception... that I can remember anyways). This is one... I tried to drop into but just couldn't.

1) The queue
2) Dead map (yes there was a 2 hour queue almost every night AND the map was dead... long queue != constant fights/packed areas)
3) Subclassing meta. The meta was already trending in a dangerous area (and had been for years with little to zero intervention from zos) but now it's just... to be blunt... it's some of the worst pvp in any MMO I have ever played.

* note 3 pains me to type out. I love eso. I've been here since beta.

RobZha · August 4

LadyGP wrote: »

3) Subclassing meta. The meta was already trending in a dangerous area (and had been for years with little to zero intervention from zos) but now it's just... to be blunt... it's some of the worst pvp in any MMO I have ever played.

Yeah I'm often doing little damage to players and wondering if that's part of the reason but I still like my Templar without any subclassing (after trying it and it not going so well) so staying with it for now.

aetherix8 · August 5

RobZha wrote: »

While waiting recently I was trying to work out how they could make the queue go down faster too and I came up with : when your alliance is pop locked and there's queues, there's a button that pops up in a menu offering you 20k if you leave pvp so someone else can get in. I thought that could be interesting if they tried it but realised that could break things and make it way worse as people join just to leave for 20k, so there'd have to be restrictions. Maybe one of more of : you have to have played regularly over the last month, need at least 500k alliance points, can only do it once a week or something too. It probably sounds stupid but if it'd help queues go down a bit faster I'd be fine with it.

Not sure that would work. I mean it would most surely not work with me. A busy MYM as it used to be, I would log in early to avoid 2h+ queue, and I would never leave for 20K or 20M. I was only logging out when I got too tired and was dying too often after several hours of playing, and often leading pugs. Only solution to the queue is to increase population caps imho.

Renato90085 · August 7

only in MYM?there is first patch i spend 2 week i hard give away 8-12 page motif in new player zone ,today i try give away some 5k-40k motif but zone chat still quite
old patch maybe <30min done

Mathius_Mordred · August 7

Can't say I noticed. We gave up queuing for our home campaign, Gray Host, as the queue was 1h+ whenever I checked (UK evenings). We made use of the additional campaigns with low pop to run the quests for the tickets. For our Saturday Cyrodiil again we had to use Blackreach and there was still a 20 minute queue to get in. Maybe it's less than previous years, I have no data, but clearly a lot of people were in the main campaigns or I wouldn't have had to queue.

Eliahnus · August 7

You do not need meta nor subclassing to enjoy PVP.

Desiato · August 7

I think ESO is completely broken at a gameplay level right now.

While I had fun putting my apprehensions about subclassing behind and adapted to it in PVE, I have concluded it's had a very bad effect on the entire game. Both the PVE and PVP end game communities have been in decline since its introduction.

It has increased the level of tedium and micromanagement by an order of magnitude.

It was a reckless implementation because it didn't take balance or the resulting gameplay into account. IMO, they were desperate for a big impact, low cost feature because of the reduced budget this year.

Most players who seem to enjoy the result are those who like to meme content and other players in OP builds in both PVP and PVE. I don't mean literally everyone, but it seems most top tier players in PVE and PVP are just meming at this point, and not remotely close to challenged by anything in the game atm.

Gigglez · August 7

MJallday wrote: »

Gigglez wrote: »

Subclassing I can't level up no skill points.
12 or so toons, played 10yrs.
Have all sub class levelled but in order to actually use on most of my toons I don't have enough skill points to subclass.
The double point cost is stopping me from adjusting them.
If you don't adjust you can't compete.
I have 2 that I can use and have been a bit but really pisses me off I can't use the other ten until I replay them for many hours to get skill points. That is really bad desicion.

i have 14 toons on EU. 6 on NA

when they annouced it was going to be double for subclassing, which was basically 6 months ago... i made sure i had enough skill points. it took a couple of weeks, but basically, i replayed zones, killed group bosses , went skyshard hunting.

there was more than enough time to prepare for this. you appear not to have. thats on you.

Ya the point here is having to play the same content twice as much to just play those toons.
Make that toon and you got to get skill points but now to have to get twice as many is equivalent to making twice as many toons. Not quite because u have 1 skill line that is original but I hope u see the point.
The OG question was why less people in PvP. It's because of the massive time required to get those skill points.
And yes, I didn't spend countless hours s preparing skill points ahead of time, this is game I play for fun, not a career I'm dedicating my life to, got one of those already and it keeps me plenty busy.
I put a ton of time into building those toons already and now got to do it again only even more because of the double point cost.
Unnecessary.

Iriidius · August 7

MJallday wrote: »

Gigglez wrote: »

Subclassing I can't level up no skill points.
12 or so toons, played 10yrs.
Have all sub class levelled but in order to actually use on most of my toons I don't have enough skill points to subclass.
The double point cost is stopping me from adjusting them.
If you don't adjust you can't compete.
I have 2 that I can use and have been a bit but really pisses me off I can't use the other ten until I replay them for many hours to get skill points. That is really bad desicion.

i have 14 toons on EU. 6 on NA

when they annouced it was going to be double for subclassing, which was basically 6 months ago... i made sure i had enough skill points. it took a couple of weeks, but basically, i replayed zones, killed group bosses , went skyshard hunting.

there was more than enough time to prepare for this. you appear not to have. thats on you.

If it is on him is irrelevant as the question is why the MYM population was that low not whose fault it is that he has not enaugh skill points.

That there was enaugh time to prepare for you does not mean that for everyone there was enaugh time and „it is on you“ doesnot make it not a reason to not play in MYM.